Choices

Part 1

by 2x2

Serenity was silent as Inara slowly made her way through the corridors leading to her shuttle, relieved she’d managed to get back on board without running into Mal and being forced into yet another confrontation about her leaving. Everyone else was off-ship for a few hours, with the exception of the Captain, who’d opted to stay on Serenity to do whatever ‘Captainy’ things he felt he needed to do. She’d been avoiding him, and she knew it, though no more than he’d been avoiding her lately.

Except when he wanted to trade insults in his clumsy way of trying to make her stay.

She sighed, letting her fingers linger on Serenity’s sloping hull. How could she have let things go so far? She should have had more control, remained distant, not become attached; then it wouldn’t hurt so much - leaving. But then, it wouldn’t matter one way or the other if she didn’t care, would it?

No.

It was the attachments – the attachment – that was forcing her to leave, before she wasn’t able to. But it was far too late to be thinking of that now. She had to leave, and the less she had to see of him before she did, the less chance there was that he would change her mind and she would never get away.

Light spilled into the corridor from her obviously open shuttle door and she pressed her lips together in irritation. There was only one person on board Serenity other than herself, and only one person who would dare enter her shuttle without her permission, damn him. His name and a curse were on the tip of her tongue as she was about to step through the hatch, but she stopped in silent shock when she saw him.

He was seated on her couch, head bowed against his fists, one of her silk scarves clenched tightly between them. His shoulders shook silently and she was horror-struck to realize he was crying. She blinked in distressed astonishment, pulling back into the shadows of the hatchway, unwilling to intrude on such a personal moment, regardless of whether he was in her shuttle uninvited or not. Sh